Child Hunger, As Seen At Wal-Mart

I still have a cookbook from when I was dirt poor specifically for $5-$10 meals to feed 4+ people. Every once in a while the news has a special as
well.. I don't see why the State cannot give out such recipies or booklets educating people how to feed themselves. Or lessons on starting urban
farms, and providing free classes on how to raise your own food. Id gladly pay more in taxes to teach people how to build raised beds, chicken coops,
buy em a chicken and teach them how to maintain it all.

"Teach a man to fish" mentality, that's what we need.

Obviously that's much harder if you live in a small apartment.. so the Gov (or chur@he's, charity, etc) should build large community gardens. If
its a more run down city, knock down a building or two houses or so and build a productive community farm. Why are we paying to have citizens go to
walmart and buy Kraft, General Mills, or whatever name brand item which generally is bad for them anyways...

Not all church's are like that. We have a vast supply of things that we distribute, and whole canning plants and farms, and grain elevators and
trucks to stock each storehouse. Items not grown or canned are purchased in huge amounts.
What gripes some people is that we give food, not money. If you are unable, we pay your bills....you bring them in and they are paid direct, but no
money is given to you. This applies for lots of things on an individual basis.
This applies to world-wide catastrophic relief as well. We ask, "What is needed?", and that is sent. I do not give to any other relief charity
because of it. I know how my money is used, and what products and services are sent.

Can't find it again, but to the person who wanted to know why I hadn't applied.....with chronic pain, it's hard to tell when I am feeling bad, or
gauge my pain. I do not look ill. I've heard so many people complain about the horror process of applying I've decided that I don't want the
hassle.
But things have changed lately. My husband division offered a very generous buy-out, and he qualified for "early retiremenet" benefits. While
he's replaced part of our income, he hasn't been able to replace it all. The extra money would be helpfull.
But I can still get by most days without wanting prescribed painkillers, and still have good days, so it's still on the back burner for now. I know
it is always there for me.

Public assistance was put in place as a temporary stop-gap for families in need. What has happened, of course, is generational poverty. This is a
problem that researchers and universities have been working on for decades. I've even participated in university research to try to figure out how
to deal with it; control it; end it.
It's an extremely difficult and complicated situation with much to consider, and many times the solutions are more expensive than the continuation of
issuing checks every month.

Public assistance, food stamps, is not just the problem, but rather a symptom of the problem. For those who are born on it, and die on it is one
thing. That's the big issue, and the complicated one.

But many use it for what it was intended for, to assist in times of unemployment, and for those who are disabled for one reason or another. There is
nothing in the world wrong with that, and this is the reason it was created.
There is no shame involved in it, and it should be available for people who struggle while living in one of the most affluent country's in the
world. If we can send billions of dollars in aid to other countries, we can surely feed our own people.

I agree with you that food stamps should be a last resort as an emergency however just because someone is on food stamps does not give me you or
anyone else the right to tell them what they can or cannot buy when it comes to food.

I too would be happy to pay a little more in taxes if that money was used to educate people on food stamps about nutrician so the parents could make
better choices, and how to budget the little money they do have better.

my family sometimes buys 2 bags of chips a month and its usually one of the baked not fried chips. or pretzel sticks. how exactly are chips a luxury
Item? my idea of luxury items is lobster, crab, fillet minoions t bone steaks etc.

But cube steak, chuck roast, and thin cuts of sirlion are not. What you consider luxury and what i consider luxury or what anyone else considers
luxury are completely different things.

Abuse in any kind of system is going to happen. when someone applies for assistance its up to a social worker to investigate if the family is truly in
need of the assistance they are asking for. If you want to change the system you really need to be pressuring your state to help the social workers do
their job and investigate each claim.

My friend thats a social worker has a case load of 2,500 families. there are 30+ other social workers in her office and their case loads are all about
the same. Now your telling me that one person has the time to really investigate 2500 people? the system is a joke and relies on the person that is
asking for help to provide truthful evidence of their income, assests, and expenses each month to qualify for assistance.

you want to cut down on abuse, the social workers need help in investigating each applicant. to find the ones that don't need the assistance and
procecute them for fraud. and the penalties for food stamp fraud need to be harsher!

And the sad reality is most people on food stamps don't get the sunday paper so they can get the coupons, most of the families on food stamps that
truly need the help also don't have internet access. they use the computers at the unemployment office to look for jobs. and no you can't just surf
the net on their computers. they can only access certain sites and its usually on sites to aid in finding work. and not every city has a cafe with
free wifi either.

And do you honestly believe that the single mom that is working part time, raising her kids on her own and going to school fulltime actually has time
at the end of her day to sit down and clip coupons? I know i don't and i'm a single dad with 2 kids that works fulltime. at the end of my day the
last thing i want to do is clip coupons. and in all honesty it would be a waste of time for me to clip them or print them off because more than likely
i'd forget to grab them on my way out the door when i went shopping!

And most of the coupons that come in the sunday papers here are for things i don't even need to begin with!

sometimes it is all you can think about after eating bologna and mac and cheese and PBJ for months on end..

if you have to be on FS, then buy food that is good for you and your family..like steaks every now and then..top ramen isn't even good for your
body...and is nothing but a chemical pac you mix in full of crap..

hopefully they rob your @#! you're judging everyone without knowing crap about their situation. your total contribution to people on benefits
spread out to every single tax payer in america is probably .001 cents if that. tell me where you live so i can transfer 10 cents to your account to
reimburse your ungrateful pitiful contribution to society. you remind me of the type of people i saw on cnn throwing dollar bills at an uninsured man
with parkinsons that couldn't work and couldn't pay his medical bills while yelling at him such nice compassionate things like " get a job, u
freeloader" and classics like "im not going to work to pay your health bills".

I honestly don't think people realize what a small amount of their personal taxes go to these funds.
I wish I knew a way to break it down, so they could actually see the two dollars they give to keep children fed, and in medicaid.

It's ridiculous. But it's what I call "the pecking order". People have to feel like they are better than somebody, and the poor are a prime
target for that, I suppose. Sigh.

edit on 9/24/2010 by ladyinwaiting because: The people here who believe you have ALL the answers, lol. You are only showing that you don't
know enough to know how much you don't know.

seriously people who work, think people who have lost their job should live like cavemen. do you think cavemen are employable? you know scruffy
looking, cannot afford a razor, a haircut, can only wash in water down the local stream that is polluted with all sorts of stuff, no one can look for
work because the available job search points have hundreds and thousands of people lining the streets waiting their turn because they are not allowed
to own one gaget that can increase their chances, even if they bought it with money they earned before losing their job.

with the internet you can find and apply for any job anywhere instantly via e:mail, its an essential job search tool, especially seeing as though most
employers prefer to advertise online these days because of the lower costs.

2 years? More like 3 months. I could have SSDI if I want due to my deafness but I would rather work at this point.

And the woman I mentioned who is selling food stamps is already under investigation. It's not a rumor anymore. She's the only one I know that abuses
them though. My brother can't find work yet so he uses his food stamps wisely. I did as well when I couldn't find work.

far more money gets spent on destroying lives with tax payers money than making lives better, but they never moan about how much of their taxes is
going towards injuring or maiming people in the form of war budgets.

what can we take from that? that people don't mind seeing others suffering but they cannot stand seeing people being given support to turn their
lives around in a time of need.

i have never once heard one person in all my life moan about how much of their tax is spent on war.

"Luxury" to me are non-meal additions that have no particular nutritional value. Instead of chips as a snack, encourage fruits or vegies and dip.
And some people would say "what kid wants to eat fruit?", I love apricots with honey and a few chopped walnuts, heated in the oven or grilled..
taste like candy, yet very healthy. But as we both concede, the Government will not educate on healthy alternatives.

And notice I never said steak was a luxury.. I don't consider it so.. in fact at a grocery store steaks usually are not THAT expensive, unless your
going for the absurd and only eat T-bones and the like.

Steak for the most part is and always has been a staple in Western diets.

And I know that even if we had a perfect system, there will always be a douche bag out there to ruin it for everyone.. but personally, just my
opinion, if the Government needs to give you assistance, it should be doing more to educate you.. might make some people mad, but you can't argue
that there's something "wrong" about the State saying eat healthy not junk food? Especially given the obesity levels among poor children!

And it would be up to the stores to enforce it, not social workers.. all items have their own codes, certain codes shouldn't register with the
Government cards. Some number pushing bureaucrats can go over the accounting of what the card actually bought and punish the stores, not the
citizens.

I agree in theory.
I've always breastfed, (had 3 kids, breastfed those and several more,)
but:
when you are terribly broke, too broke for the mother to eat enough protein and veges, and under stress,
- and being that broke with kids means you are bound to be stressed,
it becomes very difficult to make milk.

I would be letting the baby suck until my nipples bled, and they ended up raw and blistered, because when your milk dries up it can take 48 hours or
more of dry sucking to bring it back.
And babies grow teeth. One of mine was born with them.

I succeeded because I was a tough, stubborn country girl, but I'm not surprised if other women in that position can't.

Re steak, my kids loved their steaks. But what they were really eating was floured and lightly fried lamb's liver.
And they drank milk, homemade lemonade for a treat, or water.

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
As for Wal Mart, well maybe they shouldn't throw away so much food and donate it to the needy. Canned items and chips even with an expiration
date are still good. I have eaten many outdated items like that and I didn't get sick and I'm still here.

Legal worries.
If they give something away and it makes someone sick, they are afraid they may be sued over it.

I am sorry that so many feel that they are qualified to speak about things they have never experienced themselves.

I will say that KARMA is a cold reckoner. I have seen quite a few "must be nice" folks filing bankruptcy or defaulting on their mortgages this
year. And with food stamps being sought by such an astonishing number of people lately, i'd wager that a good many are now eating their words...God
knows that there is little else to eat when your feeding yourself on $4.50 a day.

I live in Missouri and shop at Aldi and Dollar General.
By the prices I pay.
Breakfast, 2 eggs, 10 cents each, two slices of toast, 5 cents each, slice of salami, 10 cents, cocoa mix, 10 cents. Breakfast total, 50 cents.
Lunch, macaroni, 1/4 lb, 25 cents, half bag of mixed vegetables, 50 cents. total 75 cents.
Dinner, two potatoes, 30 cents, half bag vegetables, don't have to be the same as lunch, 50 cents, 1/4 lb hamburger, 50 cents. total 1.30. Daily
total 2.55. Leaving 1.95 for other things. First day use 1.10 to buy margarine to fry eggs, put on toast and vegetables and potatoes, onion powder to
give vegetables, macaroni and potatoes some taste, 50 cents, leaving 35 cents to add to tomorrows budget. You won't have to buy margarine or onion
powder every day so you can spend the money for that on something else.
Next day eat the same thing, have 1.95 for other things plus the 35 cents left over, = 2.30 for other things.
Next day eat the same breakfast and lunch, and for dinner splurge on a can of ham, 1.00, 1/4 pound of beans or lentils, 25 cents, and a half pound
mixed vegetable 50 cents. 1.75 + 1.25 for lunch and dinner=3.00, 1.50 left over to go with the 2.30 from the two previous days= 3.80, buy yourself a
half gallon of ice cream for 2.20 for a treat and have 1.60 for left over.
In Missouri, there is no sales tax on food stamp purchases.
Every day you would be getting a pound of vegetables, two eggs, and 1/4 lb meat. With cocoa and icecream for treats. Lots of people who work at well
paying jobs don't eat that good a diet. I prefer whole wheat bread which is more expensive and would make the left over total less but that is
something for each person to work out. None of the above with the exception of cocoa and the ice cream is junk food. And even they contain some milk.
No ramen noodles mentioned.
I know that there will be responses that they live in the inner city and have to take three buses to get to an Aldi and that they have to shop at the
corner store where everything is overpriced. Life is hard for us all.

Do I honestly believe that busy people have time to clip coupons? Absolutely. I had a husband out of town 5 days a week, a two year old and an
infant. I made all my meals from scratch (including baby food) and I found the time. You do what you have to do for your family to not just survive
but thrive. And even without coupons $570/month will feed the average family if you plan your meals and not eat convenience food or take-out. It's
not just about coupons. It is about making the right food choices. I think a lot of people are simply too exhausted at the end of the day to cook
because they are not getting the nutrients their body requires to give them energy.

I believe in social assistance. We have to help our poor. Why not send healthy recipes with each welfare cheque or receipt? Why not offer healthy
cooking classes side by side with employment classes. Why not teach young mothers how to breastfeed? There is so much more we could be doing to help
these people get out of the hole. I know clipping coupons isn't the answer but I do wish I could teach a class on how to stretch a grocery budget.

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